Till Life Do Us Part
by Friend of the ABC
Summary: What if Chuck and Ned were offered a way out of their “no-touch” relationship? Would they take it? What would it mean?
1. Chuck's Dream

"I had the strangest dream last night," said Chuck, coming into the kitchen of the Pie Hole.

"Most dreams are strange," said Ned, looking up from the pie he was putting the finishing touches to. "You can never run, you can never call out, you can never escape."

"Oh, but this dream was strange because it was…," Chuck cocked her head to the side and searched for the right word, "well… real."

Ned raised his eyebrows – those adorable eyebrows that always made Chuck grin and get fuzzy feelings all over.

"Oh!" Ned was slightly afraid at the way this was going. "Well, what happened?"

"Well," said Chuck, watching Ned resume his work on the pie, "I dreamt that you came back to Coeur d'Coeur before I died… before I decided to take a fun adventure on the high seas which ultimately resulted in my murder…"

"You're bunny trailing."

"Right. Sorry. Anyway, you came back. You looked for me, because you never forgot that I was your first kiss—"

"My first love."

"Aw. Was I? Thanks." She grinned. "So, we hung out for a while. Dated, kissed, touched… all that. But at the end of it, you left Coeur d'Coeur to return to the Pie Hole, and I went on staying with Aunt Lily and Aunt Vivian."

Ned looked up. "Wow, that sounds like… an alternative reality… A parallel universe that got suppressed and destroyed when you decided to take the travel agent's offer on a once-in-a-lifetime trip."

"I know!" exclaimed Chuck. "But then it got me thinking…"

"Oh dear," muttered Ned, picking up the pie and walking towards the oven.

Chuck continued, either not having heard Ned or having chosen to ignore him: "'What if you and I are only really together because: one, you're subconsciously afraid of letting me go because you'll feel bad? You know… you brought me back and now you abandon me. And two, because I'm subconsciously eternally grateful for you bringing me back – because I am! – and therefore can never leave you.'"

"But I don't feel that way," insisted Ned, putting the pie into the oven. "I mean, I don't particularly enjoy searching the depths of my subconscious because of the sticky, old, painful revelations you might find there, but I do think that I know myself very well. No, Chuck…" He stepped forward towards her. "I—"

Chuck interrupted with a sudden revelation, "Or are you afraid because you equate abandonment or breakups to your father and you don't ever want to be associated with him that way… ever?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, and as soon as she saw the expression on Ned's face, she knew that they had been a mistake.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I ought to put my foot in it sometimes."

There was that tightness in Ned's voice: "No, I don't think of it that way… I tend not to think of my father. In fact, I did not give him one thought until the day Maurice and Ralston were brought back into my life." He looked away. Chuck saw him swallow – hard.

"I have broken up with girls before. It's not something I enjoy doing and it's something I don't ever want to have to go through with you…" He looked back. "Ever," he finished, earnestly.

Chuck felt a warmth spread through her entire soul. Ned felt such relief for speaking the inner contents of his soul to her that he continued:

"From the day my mother died…" He swallowed again. Chuck thought she saw him blink away tears.

"You showed me," Ned said finally, "that not all deaths are a tragedy."

_No, _thought Chuck. _It brought you to me. _

That was when Emerson came into the kitchen. By the look on Ned and Chuck's faces, he could tell that he'd walked into a private moment – again.

"Come on, you two," he snapped. They jumped. "We've got work to do."

**A/N: **Okay, so this grew out of my thoughts on how _Pushing Daisies _could have ended - properly. I'm secretly trying to catch Bryan Fuller's attention -waves-. Please review... If enough people review, I'll write a second chapter.


	2. Raymond Romano

**Disclaimer: **Raymond Romano, Ophelia O'Brien and the unnamed girl at the end are all mine. The others belong to ABC and Bryan Fuller. -sniff-

They piled into Ned's car.

"Who's the victim?" asked Ned, starting the engine.

"Raymond Romano," said Emerson, taking the file out of his briefcase. "Forty-nine-years-old, successful banker. I ran a background check last night… Your garden variety of a rags-to-riches story. Good man, nice family... However, he nearly ruined his reputation three years ago when his name was tangled up with a fraud case."

"_Nearly _ruined his reputation?" echoed Ned, turning the car onto the main road. "What happened?"

Emerson snorted. "Insufficient evidence. The prosecutors couldn't do anything; the court had to let him go."

Chuck reached back for the file, which Emerson handed to her. "Maybe his murderer was a victim of the fraud case, someone who decided to take justice into his own hands, someone inflamed enough become a tragic victim to nothing more than a common criminal."

Ned looked up at the rearview mirror to see Emerson's reflection. "Who is the suspect?"

"Ophelia O'Brian," said Emerson. "She's charged with murdering Romano. Her mother has offered an undisclosed amount to the person who can find the real killer."

"What if Ophelia O'Brian _is _the real killer?" mused Chuck. "What if she's not telling her mother some things? What if we're going on a wild goose chase to find the killer who is already in custody?"

"Damn," muttered Emerson. "I hate it when you come in and make it all complicated." Chuck always made his business sound like nothing more than a money-grubbing scheme.

"Just a thought," Chuck defended.

They arrived at the city morgue. As usual, the Coroner was sitting at his desk, writing something. When they entered, the Coroner looked up. Ned thought he saw a mix of emotions in the man's face, a mix which Ned couldn't read. But those emotions, if they were there at all, quickly disappeared.

"We've come to inspect the body," said Emerson.

"There's someone already in there," said the Coroner.

"Someone from the police?" asked Emerson, annoyed that they had to be kept waiting.

"Perhaps," said the Coroner, his stony face not moving an inch.

"That probably means no," whispered Ned to Emerson.

"Yeah, yeah." Emerson was annoyed. "How long is this person gonna take?"

"As long as they need to," said the Coroner. "Y'all need to sit and wait like normal people."

_Normal people… Does he know? _thought Ned, feeling a shiver go down his spine.

Something in Emerson snapped. He didn't like to wait, and he wasn't about to begin now.

"Aw, hell," he said, stepping forward. Before anyone could react, he barged through the door and into the morgue.

Everyone jumped up and followed him.

They all stopped in their tracks.

There was a young woman in the morgue. She had spun around when she heard them coming in, her eyes wide with horror. Behind her, on the table, Raymond Romano was sitting up – alive.

**A/N: **Okay, I've not seen all of _Pushing Daisies s.2 _yet, so if my facts and chronology are a bit wrong, please forgive! Anyway, I heard from my friend that it ends pretty badly with lots of cliffhangers and stuff. What I mean by "How _Pushing Daisies _should end" is that how they would tie up the series... Yeah :D.


	3. Scene of the Crime

**Disclaimer: **The only two people who belong to me are Raymond Romano and the girl. Chuck, Ned (sniff, sniff) and Emerson are ABC's.

At that very moment, four people mirrored the same expression of shock, horror and wonderment. Those four people were Chuck, Ned, Emerson and the young woman who stood by the body of the deceased (?) Raymond Romano.

"What's wrong?" asked Raymond Romano. "You all look as if you've seen a ghost."

Ned was about to speak when the mortician stepped forward and closed the door to the morgue calmly but firmly.

"No, wait!" cried Ned. "I want to… I want to…"

"Whatever is going on in there," the mortician said, "is none o' yo' damn business."

Ned was about to argue when he felt Chuck tugging at his sleeve. Emerson was already holding the exit door open. Ned could do nothing but obey his two companions.

He felt as if he was walking through a dreamlike state, with a million and one explanations going through his mind on why Raymond Romano was still alive. The first nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight explanations were strange babblings that rose from his frenzied state of mind. The last two he seemed to find even coherent:

One, Raymond Romano was not really dead. He had faked his own death and the young girl and mortician were a part of an elaborate plot. Raymond Romano probably owed hundreds of people money whose sums Ned couldn't even imagine. Maybe the deceased (?) Raymond Romano was fleeing the country.

The second explanation Ned didn't even want to think about. It was possible, but…

Suddenly, Ned didn't care for explanations. He wanted to be away from the morgue as fast as possible.

"Get in," he ordered, unlocking the car.

Emerson and Chuck simply stood next to the car, not moving. When they put their minds to it, they could really be of one will.

"Get in!" repeated Ned.

"No!" exclaimed Chuck. "I want some explanations and I'm going to wait here until I get some."

"Well, I'm not exactly the one who can answer them," said Ned. "I didn't wake Raymond Romano. I didn't even go within six feet of that body."

"No, not from you," said Chuck, "but from the girl who was in there. She has to come out sometime."

Ned looked appealingly at Emerson, who said, "Yeah, I want to know who else has a racket like ours going on in the city."

"Fine!" exclaimed Ned, trying to sound resolute. "I'm going and you two, if you want, can wait until she comes out and then you'll have to walk back to the Pie Hole…"

Chuck folded her arms, shifted her weight to one foot and set her jaw at a stubborn angle. Emerson scoffed and rolled his eyes and turned back to the morgue.

"I don't want to wait," Ned appealed to Chuck. "Please, let's go."

"Ned," said Chuck, "aren't you dying, deep inside, to know what was going on? I am! Because—"

"Hush you two," said Emerson. "Here she comes."

All three of them turned to look back at the morgue. The young woman was coming out alone. She was desperately trying not to be recognized, for she was wearing a pair of big sunglasses and was looking down on the ground as she walked. But Emerson, who had a knack for faces, recognized her.

They waited till she had come through the gates and was a few feet away from them. Then Emerson called out, "You there."

She was someone who was not used to being on her guard. She looked up at them. Ned saw, behind her sunglasses, her eyebrows go up in shock. She looked as if she was unsure whether to run, hide or stay – the struggle of emotions was evident in her face.

Chuck said, "We don't want to arrest you or hurt you. We just want to ask you a few questions."

The girl's mouth took a twist of defiance. "You guys aren't the cops, are you? Because I can tell you, sure as day, that it isn't a crime in this country to bring someone back to life."


	4. Conclusions

Olive was watching the four people at the table six feet away from her. They had been speaking in low voice for the last twenty minutes. But Olive tried to exercise her body language reading skills and discern what was going on…

Ned was refusing to look at Chuck or the girl who had come in with them. He would occasionally glance up at Emerson with such a pitiable expression in his beautiful, warm eyes that Olive wanted to do nothing but go over and pull him into her arms and soothe him like a child.

Hmm…

Olive concluded Ned was feeling guilty about something and wanted Emerson's sympathy.

Now. What about the others?

Chuck had her "I'm trying to be understanding" expression. She was trying to make eye contact with Ned, but was failing miserably. So she would look at the new girl, but the girl also wouldn't really look at Chuck. Then Chuck would look at Emerson.

Conclusion: Chuck knew what was going on but was trying to be understanding and caring.

Next, Emerson.

Emerson was looking at everyone with a slight scowl on his face. When Ned tried to get sympathy from him, Emerson would snort derisively and take a loud, noisy gulp of his coffee. When Chuck tried to look at Emerson, Emerson would raise his eyebrows and glance at the girl.

Conclusion: Emerson was upset that he was caught in the situation.

Lastly, the girl.

Olive took a minute to look her over. The girl had dark brown hair which could have been her best feature if it were styled properly. It was tied into a messy pony knot at the back of her head. She was wearing a lime green sweat shirt and a brown denim skirt. Not exactly the colour combination Olive would wear, but it seemed to work on her. Sort of.

Olive shook her head. Why was she looking at this girl's appearance? It was completely irrelevant.

She looked at her mannerisms.

The girl was looking down at her uneaten slice of pie, her hands folded on her lap under the table. She would occasionally glance hesitantly at Ned and Chuck, but she did not dare look at Emerson.

Conclusion: She, too, was feeling guilty about everything.

Olive took all these into consideration as she wiped the counter top. Then, with a jolt, she realized that there could only be one explanation to that scenario:

Emerson discovered Ned cheating on Chuck with the unknown girl.

Fury rose in Olive. How _dare _Ned cheat on Chuck? How _dare _Ned cheat on Chuck with a girl who was not Olive?

_Men._

Olive watched Chuck say something to Emerson. There was a snort and Emerson left the table. To her joy, he came over to Olive.

"So what's happening over there?" asked Olive, nodding in the direction of the remaining trio.

Emerson looked at Olive. "What do you think is happening?"

Olive was on the verge of blurting out her cheating theory, but it suddenly felt stupid. She bit her lip and answered, "Nothing."

"That's right," said Emerson. "Nothing. A good twenty minutes and we've got nothing out of her…" He went away muttering to himself.

Olive looked over at Ned, Chuck and the girl again. By the sound of it, that girl was there because of an investigation. Olive felt happier. That meant Ned had not cheated on Chuck (that she knew of) and that there was no other object of Ned's affections.

She would have watched longer, but someone wanted to order. With a sigh, Olive turned away and attended to the customers because that was what Ned had hired her to do and would have expected her to do. God knew that Olive would have done whatever Ned expected her to, except stop loving him.

Let us now shift our attention to the table where Ned, Chuck and the girl were sitting…

**A/N: **Hey guys. Sorry it's taken so long for me to update! I've been dry on inspiration and busy with a lot of other stuff…I hope that the chapter is not contradictory with _Pushing Daisies _chronology and events. I've not watched the series for a long, long, long time. Hope you guys like this chapter. It's for all of you who have reviewed.


	5. Confessions

Most of the time, Chuck just liked to leave things alone and see where they went. _Going with the flow, _went the saying. Most of the time it worked quite well. The flow had led her to going on that cruise, had led her to being murdered (the downside, or the Dark Side if you like, of the flow), had led her to Ned and the Pie Hole and Digby and Olive and Emerson and every part of her beautiful life now… Of course she missed Aunts Lily and Vivian with every fiber of her being but, as the other saying went, _You lose some and you win some._

This time, Chuck knew that if she didn't give the flow a little encouragement, it would go nowhere; and nowhere was not somewhere, which was where they needed to be right now.

"So," Chuck said to the girl, "we actually haven't exchanged names yet. I'm Charlotte, but you can call me Chuck. This is my boyfriend" – the word always made Chuck smile – "Ned."

The girl raised her eyes, looked from Chuck to Ned and back to Chuck again. "Marie."

There was another moment of awkward silence.

"Well," Chuck went on, "Ned owns this joint – the Pie Hole. Or as my friend Olive over there would say, _As in, shut your but most people wants to open theirs'." _

Chuck thought she saw a glimmer of a smile at the corner of Marie's mouth. Ned still had not moved.

She was about to start encouraging the flow again, but Marie said, "You guys are probably wondering what I was doing at the morgue and why that dead guy was… undead."

Ned's head snapped up.

"Yes," said Chuck, feeling the excitement in her rise. "Very much."

Marie gave a little wry chuckle. "I have spent the last hour trying to think of a plausible lie, but I'm not a very good liar." She sighed deeply. "So I suppose there's nothing but the truth left…"

There was another long pause as Marie fell silent once more. Ned wanted to reach across the table and shake the truth out of her; he literally had to sit on his hands. Instead, all he did was take another loud and noisy sip of his coffee.

"You guys have to promise me that you will never _ever _tell anyone this," said Marie suddenly. With one hand she grabbed Ned's, with the other she grabbed Chuck's. Ned was so startled he nearly spilled his coffee all over the table. "The rest of my life, my _future, _depends upon it. Do you understand?"

"Don't worry," Chuck said with a secret smile at Ned. "We're good at keeping secrets."

"Okay." Marie blew out and closed her eyes. "So I'm gonna just say it."

"You do that…," muttered Ned, the first words he'd spoken since they returned from the morgue.

"You guys are not going to believe me," said Marie slowly, "but… but… I… can… Oh, heck. This is too hard to say."

The suspense was too much for Ned to bear.

"You can bring people back to life," he burst out. "Isn't that right?"

Marie's silence told him he'd guessed right.

His heart began hammering in his chest, forcing his blood to his head. Everything took on a red hue, every noise sounded so far away. It was so difficult to breathe. Ned wondered if he was going into shock.

Marie turned to Chuck. "I found out when I was eight," she said. Her eyes took on the look of one who had just relieved oneself of an old and heavy burden, yet was unsure if telling was the right thing. "I was coming home from school and saw these three boys throwing rocks at a bird in the tree. For some stupid reason, the bird didn't want to fly away. I tried to stop them, but they told me if I didn't anything, if I told anyone, they would stone me as well. So I watched them kill the bird… They went away, laughing. The bird was certainly dead – its body was crushed and mangled and bloody. I picked it up, wanting to give it a proper funeral, but it just hopped onto its little feet and flew away as if nothing had happened."

"Did anything die in its place?" Ned asked. The blood was still pounding in his temples, but it was less difficult to breathe.

"I don't know," Marie shrugged. "I've only brought two things back since then – once by accident and the other was Raymond Romano. I can't tell you how scared I am of my… my… _gift, _if you like." She paused. "Why, was something supposed to?"

"Isn't that the rule?" asked Ned. "One minute of newfound life before something else goes in its place."

Marie threw her hands up. "I don't know! I'm only seventeen… I've not seen enough corpses. And even if I have, I don't relish the thought of touching them. I nearly vomited when I touched Raymond Romano."

Then Marie's face lost its exasperated look and took on an inquiring one.

"There's a rule?" Marie asked. "You mean, there's a society of… grim reapers out there that establishes these rules? How would you know?" She gave a nervous laugh. "You're not a… grim reaper, are you?"

"No." Ned's hand tightened around his coffee mug's handle. "On the contrary, I make the grim reaper's job a lot harder and more confusing like… like…" He swallowed. "Like yourself."

Marie's jaw dropped. She closed her eyes. "Oh… my… God…," she murmured. "That means—"

Ned didn't reply, so Chuck supplied it for him.

"He's like you," said Chuck. "He can also bring people back to life."

**A/N: **_Dum-dum-dum... _And the plot thickens. I'm sure you guys saw this coming. Ha, ha. I KNOW this isn't the best story ever written, but it was just something I needed to get out of my system or it was going to bug me for the rest of my fangirl existence. Thanks for the reviews =). The next upload should come when I have the time... Thanks for your patience!


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